Fatema Agarkar

Fatema who is a State and University topper as part of the prestigious Mumbai based Sydenham College of Commerce & Economics, holds a degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Birmingham (UK), apart from her B.ED and ECCE degrees amassed when she decided education was her calling.

Having kick-started her career in the corporate world and working with premier organizations like Commerzbank, Times of India and Egon Zehnder International, she always had an inner urge to bring about an enhancement in the sphere of education which she believed showcased several “gaps” that needed attention immediately if India as a country emerged as the “resource-power” in the decades to follow. It meant there were disruptions to be seen and her corporate experience gave her a sense of direction and clarity and over the 18 years, she has incorporated this cross-industry best practices to “professionalize” the education space.

Having gathered tremendous experience as a result of setting up many national and international pre and high schools, she has been creating opportunities for all stakeholders with an undying passion for teacher training, integrating children with special needs and emphasizing on the significance of sports. Utilizing the inventive teaching models, refining erudition outcomes and retaining them, her exertions and spectacular works have proven to be a real opportunity to alter the lives of children.

As an educationist and life-long learner, she has come a long way to intertwine modern methods of learning, teaching and customizing education as per the student’s intellectual requisites thus eradicating stress that stems from the education system. She has been sedulous in making comprehensive alterations in the education field in India. Being a risk-taker, Fatema has been focusing on the generation of innovative educational modules and her in-depth academic know-how, nothing but truly defines her ceaseless passion. It’s her belief that in order to become a creative educator one needs to be an innovator first. Also, the most optimum way to set-up a ground-breaking model in the classroom is to execute ways in which a subject can be taught through real-life situations and this kind of classroom teaching will vest students to think beyond four walls.

Her name is synonymous with successful education models of the country and she was adjudged as Education World’s top 50 young educators in the year 2014. Adding more feathers to her hat, she has also been the recipient of several prestigious awards for her outstanding contribution to the field of education in the years 2013 and 2015.

Fatema has been awarded by Giants Group for her outstanding contribution to the field of education in 2012, the Young Achiever’s Award in the year 2017, Singapore based, Best of Asia’s, ‘Enterprising Educator in the year 2018 and as an entrepreneur ‘Best Edupreneur 2019 and Best Leadership’ by Progressive Academic Excellence India (Maharashtra 2019), one of the 10th finest inspirational educators in 2019 by TKR, India and the latest being Learning Leaders of Tomorrow by the 7th World Training Development Congress 2020.Donning all the skills of an adroit speaker, addresses by her during conferences and summit are not just informative and concrete but also eye-opening. Being a social entrepreneur and educationist, she never turned blind to the quotient of altruism rather she has a dream of setting up foster care centers on a pan-India basis to enable the less fortunate with physical disabilities to receive assistance and will be executing this, in times to come.

She suggests that in order to safeguard first-rate quality education for all children on a larger scale basis, the educators must be ready, individually and institutionally, to focus uniquely on outcomes, categorize the gaps, test and embrace novel methods and techniques in order to facilitate children to think beyond four walls of the classroom.

A pioneer of change, her extraordinary and inspiring actions indicate towards nothing but reforming and revolutionizing the Indian education system.

Having being associated with leading high school brands like DRS International, Hyderabad, NSS Hill Spring International, Mumbai, The Gera School, Goa, D Y Patil High School, Talegaon (Pune), SVM, Ratnagiri by the Gadre family, The Excellere World School, Gurgaon, JBCN International Schools, Mumbai, Fatema has now close to 40 pre-schools and high schools that she has set up from the grassroot level including a school for special needs’.

Fatema is on the Advisory Board of several Trusts and organisations including EduTech India, SchoolWizard, Wockhardt Foundation, Ray Foundation,Teachers Help Teachers as well as a jury member, Education World Awards, a platform that recognises the efforts of educators pan India. Fatema is also the Vice President for Early Childhood Association (ECA) and the Mumbai Territory Head for Association for Primary Education & Research (APER) in India.    

Fatema has been appointed as the global ambassador of the Commonwealth Entrepreneurs Club. Given her access to parents and her ability to provide age appropriate strategies to enable them to make more informed choices, Fatema’s passion remains counselling in the hope that effective parenting will enable children to benefit the most.